Severely injured in battle, Gloucester WWII veteran finds peace in paintings
GLOUCESTER - On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, you will find Joseph Garrisi painting away in his apartment in Gloucester. As he puts brush to canvas, the 99-year-old World War II veteran can still remember the moment he was severely injured in battle. While the incident led him to an acting career, you will now find him buried in his art.
Garrisi was in Italy during WWII. One day, his platoon was sent to protect a monastery.
"Just before we got there, I fell. I was carrying a tripod for a machine gun," said Garrisi. "I did the carrying, and I did the shooting. I didn't let someone do this."
He was told to head back for medical attention, even though he thought he was fine.
"[The doctor] said, 'Alright, take these pills,' The black pills? I don't know if they were charcoal or what?" laughed Garrisi.
As he went back out to the battlefield, that is when his story changed dramatically.
"Here comes the Screaming Mimis, and you could hear them coming. They would scare the hell out of you because when you hear them, you know they are shelling you. They hit, and then I got hit in the face. As I got hit in the face, I twirled around, and another shell hit in the leg," remembered Garrisi.
His heroics left him not only with a scar, but two Purple Heart medals.
Stage actor, restaurant owner after war
After the war, he came home, but his doctors suggested he move to California. They thought the climate would better suit his war injuries. It's there his love for the arts blossomed.
He became a stage actor working alongside Dustin Hoffman. Later, he opened a restaurant that once hosted President Gerald Ford. He and the First Lady continued to send him photos and letters. His restaurant also hosted Frank Sinatra's 47th Birthday.
It wasn't until his 60s that he took up painting. His relatives say he stopped for decades before being convinced to pick it up again just before the pandemic hit. His art is what got him through that war, as COVID restrictions left him alone in his apartment. In his artwork, he sees faces.
"You can't believe how many faces that picture has," said Garrisi. "You will see the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the whole thing."
It's in those swirls that he finds his peace.